THE SCOTT FENWICK DIARIES

In Nilsen’s middle-grade novel, a seventh grade girl crushes hard on a fellow classmate.

Millie Jackson may have (mostly) moved on from her deep-seated infatuation with pop star Rory Calhoun, the object of her desire in Nilsen’s previous novel, Worldwide Crush (2023), but that doesn’t mean she’s given up on love entirely. Now, in seventh grade social studies, she has a new target: brown-eyed, floppy-haired Scott Fenwick. “Never have I ever dared to consider that someone—a very cute someone—might actually like me. As in like me like me. Until now.” They pass notes in class and even salvage a sweet moment out of a very embarrassing trip to Target with Millie’s mom and kooky great-grandma Phyllis, but Millie is never quite sure how Scott feels. She takes notes in the titular Scott Fenwick Diary, often consulting her best friend, Shauna, who is simultaneously dealing with her own family drama. Meanwhile, pressure to participate in activities like grandma-sitting and an intensely awkward family talent show performance piles on. But Millie perseveres in keeping her crush active, inserting herself into Scott’s life by befriending his neighbor Tibbs and procuring an invitation to his bar mitzvah. After a missed kiss at the big event, Millie is fully engrossed in her devastation until her beloved dog, Pringles, suffers an accident that makes her re-evaluate her relationships and herself. In this sequel, Nilsen nails the nuances of being a young teenager with feelings so big they overexamine even the smallest moments. Millie’s anxieties and concerns over things like how to kiss may make readers cringe, but only because they are so real and relatable. Her PG-rated swearword substitutes like “Gob!” and “Holy Christmas” are annoying, but they contribute to her overall characterization. Yet despite Millie’s personal devotion to Scott, Nilsen makes it clear that rather than a “will-they, won’t-they” narrative, this is a story of self-discovery.

A nuanced story of first romance that stays true to its characters.